The 32-year-old also attacked two police officers as he said he would target their families as well as women and children in the airport.

The suspected terrorist, known only as Rocco M., suffers from schizophrenia, a chronic and severe mental disorder, and is currently in detention awaiting trial.

The man, known only as Rocco M, turned up at the Aviapartner check-in desk at Nice airport on Sunday, and erupted into a rage when an employee told him there was no reservation under his name. [...]

When police officers rushed to the scene Rocco M said he would “slit their throats and the throats of their wives and children”, and threatened to “blow the place up”. He then started throwing punches, slightly injuring two of the policemen.

Local officials claim Rocco M is a “vulnerable adult” who cannot be left alone and who has spent much of the past five years as a patient in a psychiatric hospital.